Downtown Gilbert’s Liberty Market is one of my favorite restaurants for lunch, but I can see how some might consider its menu of delicious sandwiches, salads and wood-fired pizzas too casual for a traditional “nice evening out.”

So starting today, restaurateur Joe Johnston and partner/chef David Traina (pictured) are introducing a half-dozen dinner entrees — some slightly “fancier” options, if you will.

If you already have some favorites on Liberty’s menu, don’t worry. Nothing is being eliminated, and all the former items are still available for lunch and dinner.

After 5 p.m. daily, though, you’ll also be able to enjoy:

• Apricot glazed chicken breast with mashed sweet potatoes and seasonal vegetables ($14);

• Flat iron steak with Mr Pibb marinade and chimichurri sauce, roasted garlic smashed potato and seasonal vegetable ($16);

• Grilled halibut with oven-roasted tomato salsa, mashed roasted cauliflower and seasonal vegetable ($16);

• Grilled chicken pasta with parmesan cream sauce, smoked mozzarella, chopped bacon and pecorino romano ($11);

• Grilled chicken sandwich with Monterey Jack cheese, spicy avocado spread, chipotle vinaigrette and kettle chips ($9);

• On Fridays and Saturdays, braised mussels in a chef’s “broth of the day” with grilled Sicilian bread ($10).

Joe Johnston, the Gilbert restaurateur who brings the East Valley an annual Free BBQ Day at Joe’s Real BBQ and Free Cheeseburger Day at Joe’s Farm Grill, is at it again.

Wednesday, Johnston’s newest restaurant, Liberty Market, will be giving away free espresso drinks from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. to celebrate the 45th birthday of its Faema E61 espresso machine (pictured with Johnston above)

The E61 model, which Faema debuted in 1961, revolutionized the espresso industry by introducing many technological firsts commonly found on today’s machines.

Liberty Market purchased its E61, which was built on July 22, 1965, from an espresso bar in Milan, Italy.

Wednesday’s free offer only applies to classic Italian drinks — in other words, espresso, macchiato or cappuccino — with no other add-ins such as syrups.

There’s a limit of one drink per person, and the drinks must be consumed on the premises.

Liberty’s E61 espresso bar still will serve its regular menu of other drinks — at their regular prices — during Free Espresso Day.

Liberty Market is located on Gilbert Road between Guadalupe and Elliot roads. Info: (480) 892-1900 or libertymarket.com.

Nearly three months after launching regular Espresso 101 classes, Liberty Market has unveiled its latest class, Pizza 101. The first session was held from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. today at the downtown Gilbert market.

David Traina, executive chef and co-owner of Liberty Market, addresses the half-dozen inaugural participants at the pizza counter. Each paid $10 for the two-hour class, which included their own pizza and beverages.

Liberty Market makes its wood-fired pizzas in a Renato oven that ranges from 600 degrees to nearly 1,000 degrees. The oven never goes cold. At night, the doors are closed and the embers glow until morning.

Traina regales the class with personal tales of oven maker Renato Riccio, an Italian immigrant who makes his famous ovens in Texas.

Pecan from right here in Arizona is the only wood used in the oven. One of its characteristics is it burns very evenly.

Off to the kitchen, where the class helps make a batch of pizza dough in Liberty’s refurbished 1934 Hobart 80-quart mixer. Some trivia: Liberty Market co-owner Joe Johnston’s grandfather invented this mixer.

Thirty pounds of freshly mixed pizza dough — made with just flour, water, salt and yeast — are placed into a clear container that will be placed in the walk-in cooler to rise overnight. Pizza cook Mike Mickelson pulls out a white plastic container of dough mixed the previous day for the class to use.

Traina demonstrates how to toss dough in the air. Fortunately, such moves are not necessary to make pizza, he says.

A class member gets instruction from Mickelson on how to stretch the dough into the proper shape and thickness.

Mickelson shows a class member how to check the dough for “window panes,” areas where the dough is thin enough to see light through. “The more sections you can see through the better,” Traina says.

A class member and Traina share a laugh.

Traina watches a class member ladle sauce onto her dough. Liberty Market’s sauce is made with San Marzano tomatoes (considered the world’s best for sauces), garlic, salt, pepper and basil.

Liberty Market does not cook its pizza sauce while making it because cooking it a second time in the oven would destroy its flavor.

Traina helps a class member put her pizza into the oven using a metal pizza peel. Pizzas are moved to various positions around the oven during the four or so minutes they take to cook.

Class members get straight A’s on their “final exams.” Then they eat them. Plus, each class member receives a pound of starter dough to take home.

Afterward, the inaugural Pizza 101 class and their instructors pose for a graduation photo.

For information on the future Pizza 101 classes, which will be held monthly, call (480) 892-1900 and leave your name and e-mail address. Or send the info in a direct message via Twitter to @libertymarket.

Thursday afternoon I got to sit in on the first “Espresso 101″ course at Liberty Market’s E61 Bar in downtown Gilbert. Our professor was none other than owner Joe Johnston himself (pictured at left), who organized the class over the social network Twitter.

The student body consisted of the first 10 lucky people who responded to Johnston’s “tweet” announcing the class last week. The pilot class lasted nearly two hours, and tuition was just $5.

(By the way, Johnston is planning more Espresso 101 classes, along with others, like a delicious-sounding Pizza 101. So you might want to start following @libertymarket on Twitter if you’re not already.)

Joe’s teaching assistant was E61 barista Teresa Fulk (pictured behind him), who goes by the name @e61queen on Twitter.

The class began with an introduction to what espresso is (a coffee beverage made by forcing hot water under pressure through coffee grounds) and what some of the myths about it are (a typical serving of espresso, at just one ounce, has less than half the caffeine that a cup of coffee has).

Joe explained how water temperature (it must be right around 200 degrees) and brew time (10 to 30 seconds, depending on how fine the coffee is ground) are two of the most important keys to good espresso.

Joe’s students had the opportunity to ask plenty of questions. Joe even handed out a class outline with space to take notes.

About halfway into the class we got to the good part: Espresso samples! Teresa made everyone small doses of three different types of espresso coffees — Neapolitan, French Roast and Kenyan — and Joe even provided biscotti.

In case you’re wondering, Liberty Market uses the Mr. Espresso brand. You can even buy bags of beans to take home.

One of Joe’s students takes a whiff of espresso before tasting it.

As a point of comparison, Joe busted out a package of strong-flavored Lavazza Crema E Gusto, a wince-inducing blend of robusta and arabica beans.

After the tastings, the topic turned to the techniques of making espresso. Teresa demonstrated how to properly grind the coffee beans.

Ground coffee then is packed into this device, which is called a portafilter. You have to push down on the grounds with 30 pounds of pressure and get a level, “polished” surface to get good espresso.

Liberty Market uses a fully restored 1965 Faema E61 espresso machine, the model that revolutionized espresso technology, imported from Milan, Italy. This one has three stations or nozzles, which we learned are called “groups.”

For their final exam, each class member got to go behind the bar and make their own espresso with Teresa or Joe. As a final surprise, in lieu of a diploma, each graduate received his or her own espresso shot glass to take home.